The present invention relates to a management system for effectively storing, outputting and utilizing image data photographed by means such as a digital camera.
In recent years, digital cameras have been rapidly propagated, and an image produced by a heat sublimation transfer printer has picture quality as high as a picture obtained by silver salt photography. On the other hand, personal computers have been propagated and are now generally used in each private home, and it is now possible for users to incorporate data from the digital camera into the personal computer and to print out the image by themselves. However, the printers to provide images of high quality are expensive, and many of the users are not yet fully familiarized with the operation of personal computers. Under such circumstances, there have appeared specialty stores for providing services to print out from the media where data from digital camera are stored, or there are also unmanned self-service printing stations. A new type of such printing station has been proposed (Japanese Patent Publication Laid-Open 10-341303), which has the functions to settle the charge paid in cash or using card. When a predetermined amount of money is paid, image data are read from a medium where data from the digital camera are stored or directly from the digital camera, and the data are displayed on a monitor. Then, necessary image data are specified and printed out, or when it is necessary to have an image of high quality, the image data are transmitted to the specialty store via a network, and the obtained prints are sent to the users by a commercial delivery service.
In the conventional type printing station of the patent as described above, it is disclosed that the image data from the digital camera are read and are printed out, while there is no description on such features that the read image data are placed under management and are effectively utilized. Many of the users who have a digital camera not only cannot print out the images by themselves but also cannot perform good management for the data of the photographed image.
To solve the problems as described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system, by which it is possible to relieve the user from the burden to print and store image data of the digital camera and to effectively utilize the image data.
The image data management system according to the present invention comprises a plurality of printing stations with functions to read digital image data, to print the data by performing necessary image processing and to transmit or receive the image data, a management system connected to each printing station via a network and used for identifying management data of each printing station and for distributing necessary data to each printing station, and a server for turning the image data (being transmitted from each printing station to the management system) to a database and for storing the data.
Further, the present invention provides an image data management system as described above, wherein the image data turned to a database has image categories as attribute information.
Also, the present invention provides an image data management system as described above, wherein the image data turned to a database contains information for public disclosure of the image as attribute information.
Further, the present invention provides an image data management system as described above, wherein the management system performs remote-controlled maintenance on each printing station based on a management data.
Also, the present invention provides an image data management system as described above, wherein, in the printing station, the user can specify an image to be printed as well as an image to be transferred to and stored in the management system from the images displayed on a monitor screen.
Further, the present invention provides an image data management system as described above, wherein the printing station comprises a photographing equipment and a photograph for certification purposes can be prepared.